Get Active Get Cycling aims to encourage more people to cycle more often and involves weekly cycle tours, cycling taster sessions and district wide cycle events. Get Active currently deliver a series of weekly fun, safe and enjoyable cycle tours at various locations, using the network cycle tracks running through the district. Each tour is led by qualified cycle marshalls. If you don’t have a bike but would like to come along and join in the fun, don’t worry, Get Active can provide you with a bike and helmet to make sure you don’t miss out totally for free.

Other Info

Get Active can loan participants bikes and helmets entirely free of charge. All rides take place off road in traffic free locations.

A major cycling event with more than 2,000 competitors is heading for County Durham.

The Marie Curie Cancer Care Etape Pennines event, organised by IMG and supported by Durham County Council, will take place on Sunday, October 7.

Competitors from across the UK, Europe and Canada will tackle the 78-mile course, which begins at Ushaw College before moving through the south and west of the county and finishing back at the college.

During the event road closures and parking restrictions will need to be put in place and residents who are affected are being invited to information sessions.

Three sessions have been organised to take place in Crook, Middleton-in-Teesdale and St John’s Chapel, where residents on the route may be affected.

The first event will take place on Tuesday, June 25 at 6.30pm at Crook Golf Club. This is primarily for people living in Witton Park and the High Jobs Hill, Low Jobs Hill, Rumbey Hill and adjacent areas of Crook.

On Wednesday, June 26 an information session will take place for Teesdale residents who live on the route at 6.30pm at Middleton-in-Teesdale Village Hall.

And on Thursday, June 27 residents in Weardale who live on the route are invited to a meeting at 6.30pm at St John’s Chapel Town Hall.

Local residents are invited to attend the meetings to find out about how they might be affected. Details of the Etape event, including a route map, can be found at http://www.etapepennines.co.uk

The cycling challenge was devised by the outgoing chief ahead of his retirement later this year.

It will support two of his favoured good causes, Durham Agency Against Crime, of which he is a board member, and Women v Cancer, which backs charities fighting breast, ovarian and cervical cancer.

The keen cyclist said the chosen route should prove a test for even seasoned riders.

He said: “I was always wanting to do something to help two very worthy causes, and this seemed like an excellent opportunity.

“It is a non-competitive event, but it is going to be a very testing and demanding course.

“There are a few tough uphill sections, from Chester-le- Street to Stanley, and between Consett and Crook, while one of the later sections is 15 miles between Peterlee and Spennymoor, which includes two major climbs. By that stage, it is going to prove really hard and a test of stamina.

“We have to keep taking energy drinks, and regularly take on cake, sandwiches and chocolate at feeding stops.”

Mr Stoddart’s wife, Kate, herself a keen supporter of Women v Cancer, will lead three volunteer caterers, who will travel ahead of the cyclists by car to provide food and drink along the route.

A cyclo-sportive in aid of the charities supported by the late Sir Jimmy Savile will take place on Saturday July 14 as part of the 2012 Scarborough Festival of Cycling.

Sir Jimmy passed away at his home in Leeds on October 29 last year at the age of 84. Although better known as a radio and TV presenter, Savile had a long-running association with cycling. He competed in the 1951 Tour of Britain, later becoming a commentator for the race and was a supporter of the Dave Rayner Fund.

The 65-mile ride will start and finish in the Scarborough Festival of Cycling at Oliver’s Mount. The ride takes in Dalby Forest, the Vale of Pickering and Yorkshire Wolds.